Mary Lanning health officials offer prevention and awareness tips on Type 2 diabetes
HASTINGS, Neb. (KSNB) - According to Mary Lanning health officials, 37 million Americans have diabetes and 96 million have pre-diabetes. Pre-diabetes means the patient has a borderline diagnosis, but with the right adjustments, it can prevent an official one. However, the symptoms for the disease are easy to neglect.
Although both types of diabetes have similar names, Manager of the diabetes program at Mary Lanning, DeAnn Carpenter, said the treatment for Type 2 compared to Type 1 are a bit different.
“People with Type 2 can still make insulin, maybe not enough insulin. A lot of them can control it with oral medications or weekly injections or a little bit of insulin,” she said. “Some people can just do diet and exercise. The main difference is Type 1 people have to take insulin and that is what they have to do to control their diabetes.”
Mary Lanning has also noticed an alarming trend with the disease and diagnosis.
“We are seeing people younger and younger get diabetes and a lot of it has to do with our society,” Carpenter said. “We don’t probably exercise as much as we did a number of years ago, types of foods that we are eating a lot of processed foods, fast foods.”
The disease has been given the name the ‘silent killer’ and the reasoning can be hard to observe.
“A part of it is because as blood sugars start to increase especially in a Type 2 diabetic changes are happening years and years before someone is actually diagnosed with diabetes,” Carpenter said. “They probably just become used to those blood sugars. It is such a slow onset for a Type 2 diabetic, they don’t even realize they are going to the bathroom more or drinking more, those types of things.”
Sharon Tolle has been a diabetic for nearly a decade and her diagnosis was a roller coaster.
“I was actually diagnosed years before that for about four to five years,” she said. “Then I corrected everything, then I let things slide again became diabetic and here I am again. It was life changing. I didn’t take it serious at first, but things are going a lot better now.”
For people who are at risk for the endocrine disease, Tolle advises to start looking at what you are eating.
You don’t realize until you watch what you are eating, what you are actually putting in your mouth,” she said. “You could lose your toes, you could lose your feet. Neuropathy is horrible. You jus have to take care of yourself. You have to watch your diet, that is the main thing.”
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